2016 BTA Winners Revealed!

Embargoed until 23h00 Wednesday 23 November

London 23 November 2016: THE WINNERS of the 2016 British Travel Awards (BTAs) have been revealed. Former England rugby union player, turned actor and TV presenter, 6 ft 10 Martin
Bayfield took the stage to make the announcements at a Carnivale themed Gala dinner held in London.

Between July and September 2016 the travelling public voted for their favourite travel companies
in the annual Awards, which are the largest consumer voted programme across any industry, not just travel.

The UK regions and attractions categories are popular Awards and the county of Cornwall
triumphed again this year, holding on to the Best UK Holiday County or Destination Award, which it has held since 2009; the Cornish town of Bude collected Best UK coastal Resort for the second time
and a new winner this year for the Best UK Leisure Attraction Award was the beautiful Lost Gardens of Heligan also in Cornwall. The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland held on to the Best UK
Heritage Attraction Award for the second year running.

Surprise winner Alpharooms stormed in to take three prestigious Awards from rivals – Best
National Travel Retailer, Best Hotel Booking Website and Best Travel Retailer for Customer Service.

Holiday giants Saga Holidays and sister company Titan did very well again – Saga collected
twelve awards and Titan fourteen. Saga’s successes included Best All Inclusive Holiday Company, Best Escorted Adventure Holiday Company, both Best Small and Mid Ship Cruise Line Awards and
several destination specific Awards. Titan retained the crown for Best Medium-Sized Special Interest Holiday Company and Best Medium-Sized Escorted Tours Holiday
Company.

Saga did however lose out to Shearings this year for the Best Singles Holiday Company, Shearings
also took Best Coach Holidays Company and Best UK Coach Holidays / Excursion company.

Best Activity / Sports Holiday Company in the large tour operator section went to Neilson Active
Holidays, with Mark Warner taking medium-size and Sailing Holidays the small company Award.

Newmarket Holidays did very well taking Best Escorted Tours Holiday Company, Best Holiday
Company to the Italian Peninsula & Malta and Best Holiday Company to Canada and Best Holiday Company to Southern Asia.

It was all change in the Best Weddings & Honeymoons Holiday Company category with Kuoni,
Destinology and Honeymoon Dreams taking the awards for large, medium and small categories.

The huge growth sector of cruising continues and the cruise categories saw Royal Caribbean take
Best Family Cruise Line; Viking Cruises took Best Cruiseline for Customer Service from 2015 winner Saga; Viking also won again Best River Cruise Line and also new wins for Viking this year were Best
Luxury Cruise Line and also Best New Cruise Ship for their vessel Viking Star.

In the hotels section it was new winners for Best International Luxury Hotel Brand - Small
Luxury Hotels of the World; Best International Upscale Hotel Brand - Hyatt Regency; Best International Mid-scale Hotel Brand - Holiday Inn and Best International Economy Hotel Brand - Ibis.
Best Western, however retained the Best UK Mid-Scale Hotel Brand Award for the third year.

In the more niche awards APH (Airport Parking & Hotels) again received the Best Airport
Parking Company Award; Staysure won Best Travel Insurance Provider and Post Office Travel Money regained the Best Foreign Exchange / Travel Money Retailer Award.

BTA chief executive Lorraine Barnes Burton said: “The companies who won 2016 Awards can be
justifiably proud as the British Travel Awards are the only travel industry accolade voted for exclusively by the travelling public in a voting process that is transparent, robust and supported by
the verification systems of Deloitte LLP. Congratulations to all the 2016 British Travel Awards’ winners!”

Highlights from the British Travel Awards will be aired on Made
Television

on Thursday 24th November at 8pm. Made Television is the UK's largest
networkof city TV channels, operating stations in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, and Tyne
& Wear. Viewers can watch the show on Freeview, Sky 117 and Virgin 159 in those areas, or live online and subsequently on the Made TV catch-up service. For full information on how to tune in
visit www.madetelevision.tv/BTAs

In total 152 Awards were announced at the British Travel Awards 2016 – a full list of winners,
including those receiving certificates for silver and bronze positions can be found at www.britishtravelawards.com